Moving Forward After the WTO Panel Report in the US-China IP Enforcement Dispute

While interesting to see how this is framed by the Financial Times, I would reiterate what some are already saying which is that the US lost on the parts of the case that really mattered to it, which were whether China's enforcement practices were non-TRIPS compliant, especially where criminal sanctions for commercial scale infringement was concerned. For more detail see Michael Geist's blog.

The US lost those points quite comprehensively, suggesting that while China may have a censorship problem, as well as perhaps a very small problem in the trademark sticker area, its laws on IP enforcement are entirely compatible with international standards of enforcement. This should, once and for all, get rid of that canard that China is an international outlaw when it comes to IP enforcement.

Now instead of spending huge sums on enforcement and court cases, perhaps we should spend more time on the more important point of how to ensure legitimate and affordable pricing of technology licenses and copyright works in such countries as China, instead of worrying so much about protecting a single business model for some industries.